Corner brace for furniture



Nov. 19, 1929. w. o. FOUGHT, JR 1,736,195

CORNER BRACE FOR FURNITURE Filed March 12, 1929 30/ fizven/ioz' I a 7 a%.

Patented Nov. 19, 1929 CORNER BRACE FOR FURNITURE I Application :filed'March 12, 1929. Serial No. 346,466. I

My present invention relates tothe manufacture of furniture, and more particularly to an-improved corner brace therefor.

In the manufacture of chairs and tables, it has heretofore been customary to secure the legs and rails together by means of dowels, these of course necessitating the use of glue'or other adhesive. More recently it has been proposed to employ a corner brace for securing not only the legs and rails of a table and chair together, but also as a means for securing the table top or chair seat to the assembled legs and rails. such corner braces have been devised, none of which, however, are entirely satisfactory, due primarily to the fact that they are expensive to install. For example, in several forms of corner braces it is necessary to utilize a jig or template for assembling the rails of a chair or table in fixed position, after which holes must be drilled in the rails and into which screws are placedfor the purpose of holding the corner brace in position. This has necessitated the use of a jig or template for each size chair or table to be manufactured. Even when assembled it is necessary, in adding the table top or chair seat, to drill holes in the bottom of the table top or chair seat and into which screws are passed through a projection in the corner brace. There is, therefore, no particular saving to be gained by utilizing a complicated form of corner.

brace and up to the present invention no other has been accessible.

the objections of prior devices of this character and have designed a corner brace which may be attached for the purpose of assembly to a table or chair rail without the use of screws or other attaching devices and which acts to hold the rails in assembled position without the use of any jig or template. l/Vhile thus held in assembled position, the table or chair legs may be attached by the usual lag screw and afterward the table top or chair seat may be added to the assembly without any additional drilling by the use of screws, which, in addition to firmly attaching the table top a or chair seat to the leg or chair assembly, also firmly attaches the corner brace to the rails.

Various forms of In my present invention I have obviated The object of my invention, therefore, is an improved corner brace for furnlture and the like. I

In'tlie accompanying'drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing my improved cornerbrace in position on a chair assembly; iv 1 Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of a portion of Fig.1; i

' Fig. 3 is a sectional 33 of Fig. 2; I

"Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44 of-Fig.2; gig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 2, an 1 Fig. 6 is a detail showing the serrations on the tubular member. V i Referring-to the drawings, 10 designates the railsof a chair in asssociation with a leg 11 and these rails 10 are drilled with a round bit to provide acounterbored portion 12 in alinernent-with a drilled portion 13 in aline ment'witheach other. By referring to the drawings and particularly Fig. 1 it will be noted that the'hole 13' and counterbor'edpor tion 12 are in alinement with-each :other and yet they do not'lie entirelywithin the material of the rail 10. The center lineof the axes of the holes 12 and 13 lies so near the edge or. surface of the rail '10'that the drill employed to cut the same out will extend outward beyond the material of the rail 10 and in the case of the hole 13 provide a slot on the side of the rail 10 entering such hole. ,This construction is utilized for sevelevation on line eral reason's, primarily as a means for insert-ing the corner brace in the hole 13 and also because of the fact that when drilling the hole 13, it can be drilled much faster than. if the hole '13 were entirely. within the material of the rail 10. a The distance of the hole 13 from the ends of the rails 10 adjacent the legs 11 not only determines the length of the I numeral 17 and with a struck up portion 18 in its central part to provide strength and rigidity, this central part being provided with a perforation 18 through which the body of the leg screw 19 may pass, and screwed into the leg 11. At each such end of the rectangular plate forming the corner brace is formed a substantially cylindrical member 20 of'a diameter to be substantially a drive fit in the hole 13 and the upper end of this cylindrical portion 20 is folded'over, as indicated at 21, which folded-over 1 portion rests on the bottom of the counterbored portion 12 in the rail 10. The vertical edge of the member 20 is provided with a plurality of serrations 30 which bite into the wood of the rails 10 because ofthe resiliency of the metal of which, it is composed, or because forced into the wood by the top or seat-holding screw to be hereinafter described. A chair seat 22 rests on the top of the rails 10 and also on the top of the legs 11 and the usual flat-head screw 23 is passed through the cylindrical portions 20 and screwed into the chair seat 22, the screws 23, therefore, not only'holding the table top 22 firmlyin position on top of the rails 10 and legs 11 but also holding the corner brace firmly in position with respect to the rails 10. Preferably and from a mechanical standpoint it is advisable to-have the longitudinal center of thecorner brace in alinement with the longitudinal center of the rails 10 and my device is of such character that but a single size corner brace is necessary, regardless of the size of the chair or table it is to be used on.

This.desirable result is brought about by the use of a drill which makes the depth of the counterbored portion 12 dependent on the depth,'so called, of therail 10, so that re gardless ofthe depth of the rail 10, the longitudinalcenter of the corner brace may be brought into alinement with the longitudinal center of the rails 10. I

The operator, in utilizing my improved corner brace, takes a pair of rails 10, as shown for example in Fig. 1, places the cylindrical members 20 formed integrally with the corner brace in the holes 13 and drives the corner brace into position to bring the portions 21 thereof into engagement with the bottom of'the counterbored portion v12. This single portion is sufficient to definitely associate the rails 10 and the corner brace and avoids the necessity of using any templates, jigs, or the like such as has heretofore been considered necessary and desirable.

WVith the rails 10, for a chair or table assembled in the manner just indicated, the operator associates the legs 11, which have al ready been preliminarily drilled to receive the lag screw 19, and such lag screw is utilized to associate the legs 11 with the rails 10. The assembled legs and rails are now placed on the bottom ofveither the table top or thechair seat and flat-head screws 23 dropped into the cylindrical members 20, where they may be readily screwed into the table top or chair bottom 22 with an ordinary screw driver and without the necessity of preliminary drilling. It will be noted that with my improved corner brace no holes are drilled either by hand or by machine in the rails 10 or table or chair top 22 other than the holes 12 and 13 and such holes 12 and 13 are merely the equivalent of the ordinary saw kerf that is now utilized with existing forms of corner braces. Further,

my improvedcorner brace is always positioned .centrally with respect to the rails 10 and I am, therefore, able to insert'a better and more even pressure on the chair or table structure than has heretofore been possible with existing c-ornerbraces.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is:

1. An improved corner brace for furniture and the like, comprising a substantially rectangular body member, a hollow cylindrical member formed at each end thereof and arranged parallel with each other, and a flange for each said cylindrical member arranged at one end thereof.

2. An improved corner brace for furniture and the like, comprising a substantially rectangular body member, a. hollow cylindrical member formed at each end thereof and arranged parallel with each other, a plurality WVILLIAM O. FOUGHT', JR. 

